Business Partners

Strauss believes in partnerships, and maintains business collaborations with local partners along with partnerships with leading multinational corporations. Our partnerships are managed on the basis of a shared commitment to improving people’s lives everywhere.

São Miguel

In 2005, we combined businesses and local market knowledge to create Três Corações, a joint venture in Brazil owned by Strauss Coffee (50%) and by São Miguel (50%).

The merged company now has a solid portfolio of local brands selling various forms of coffee and other products: roast and ground coffee, cappuccino, instant coffee, ready-to-drink (RTD) products, capsules, chocolate milk, corn-based products and powder juices. Additionally, the company exports green coffee around the world.

Café Três Corações continues to delight consumers through innovation and the evolution of its brands and product lines. The business is growing and expanding across many regions in Brazil. And recently, it became the largest coffee company in Brazil.

In Brazil we run 6 production facilities in which the JV employs more than 4,100 employees nationally.

About São Miguel

From his humble beginnings selling green coffee beans door-to-door in the small city of São Miguel in 1959, João Alves de Lima planted the seed, which would later blossom into Santa Clara Coffee.

Over the following years, the company became a green bean procurement, roasting and grinding company. Through his relentless hard work and a visionary approach, Joao Lima gained national recognition among industry peers, which led to his involvement in the founding of the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC).

In 1984 an important transition in the company took place, as João’s sons joined their father in managing the family business. The shift led to a period of vast expansion and technological modernization, elevating the brand to the national stage. The family’s vigorous work ethic and unrelenting resolve have persevered through generations and remain at the core of the company’s ethos today.

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Areas of Activity

External Links

Milestones in the Partnership

2000

Selling Coffee to the Brazilians

Elite continued to expand internationally and acquired the Brazilian coffee company, Café Três Corações, "Three Hearts Coffee". The acquisition provided the company with a source of raw materials and granted Elite control over 40% of the cappuccino market in Brazil.

2005

Number 2 in Brazil

An agreement was signed for the merger of Strauss-Elite's coffee operation in Brazil with Santa Clara Coffee, a Brazilian coffee company owned by the Lima Brothers. Partnership in the merged company is 50%-50% of ownership and control, and at the time of the merger the venture became the second largest coffee company in Brazil.